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Ari Roisman – Wristcam CEO, joined Yahoo Finance to discuss his product, The Wristcam, a camera for your Apple Watch.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Welcome back to “Yahoo Finance Live.” So you got that great Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever gift you got over the holidays, there was an Apple watch. But missing, until now, was the perfect camera to go with it. Let’s bring in Ari Roisman, Wristcam CEO, because now you can use a Wristcam camera in conjunction with the Apple Watch.

I’m going to let you tell us about this. How much it costs, how it works, and you’re off to the races, aren’t you?

ARI ROISMAN: Yeah, we are. We just debuted the product, really exciting, users are loving it. It’s been a long time coming. But I mean, that’s– you know, the name, I think, is self-explanatory by design. This is a Wristcam. We finally brought the long-awaited camera experience to the wrist. It’s a pretty special experience that lets you go without your phone.

It really gives the Apple Watch independence in a way that it’s never had before. And, you know, it’s a wearable camera that’s really designed to be conscious of privacy. As you can see, there’s a bright LED that goes off when I take a photo.

You’ve got a self-facing camera, you’ve got a world-facing camera here, you’ve got eight megapixels out, enough memory to hold thousands of photos over an hour of HD video, 1080p video. We actually support live streaming too, which is pretty unique. And this is, as far as I’m aware, the one and only smart band for the Apple Watch that actually has Apple’s seal of approval.

They have an MFI program for Apple Watch, and we’re the only band that’s formally made for the Apple Watch. It’s 299, it’s modular, you can mix and match the bands. It’s super lightweight, weighs only 22 grams. It’s a really nifty experience.

SEANA SMITH: Ari, what’s it like working with Apple? I mean, the partnership there, what has your experience been like?

ARI ROISMAN: Well, you know, I’m an Apple fan boy, like many of the folks in the company. You know, definitely take a lot of inspiration from Steve Jobs and the world-changing products they’ve designed. And, you know, we tried to work thoughtfully with them over the years. We were a launch partner for the Apple Watch when the product first debuted.

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And I was introduced to one of the original engineers from the Apple Watch team. And he liked the work that we were doing and the vision we had around live video enablement. And, you know, he left Apple and joined me, and the rest is history. And this is it, I mean, you know, two cameras on your wrist, and it’s really amazing what it does.

Because now, like, you know, I can really leave home without my phone, I got payments here, I can do calls here. But I don’t have a camera. Well, I mean, I do now, right? You know, I’ve had it for a while. But, you know, a lot of folks have really been waiting for a camera so they can have true independence now that– Apple Watch is on its fourth generation cellular device.

SEANA SMITH: Ari.

ARI ROISMAN: We see that there’s an app store now natively on the watch. And so I think we’re only see–

ADAM SHAPIRO: Ari.

ARI ROISMAN: –more and more independence. Yeah.

ADAM SHAPIRO: What makes you optimistic that Apple isn’t going to say, enough with you, and do our own thing and just put a camera in their own device?

ARI ROISMAN: Yeah, you know, I can’t speak to Apple’s plans. No one else has done this. I haven’t caught wind of anybody else doing anything like this. It’s a pretty tough problem to solve. It’s a big battery drain if you don’t have the right software and framework to power it. We have our own battery here, you know, that powers the experience.

You know– you know, I think Apple is really focused– just looking at what they’ve done with the watch, you know, it’s really become the go-to health, fitness, self-enablement tracker, now, you know, sleep tracking. And with COVID, I mean, health has become so much more of a focus. There’s some early indicators that have correlation with some of the vitals that the Apple Watch is tracking.

I think that’s a path that, you know, appeals to everyone. Health is so important. You know, I think, you know, the iPhone strategy is really closely linked to the camera. So I think when you’re Apple’s size, I don’t know, you know, how much you need a camera built into the watch, there’s privacy concerns, privacy is a focus for Apple.

You know, but I think– you know, we’ve really enjoyed being an Apple developer and having the opportunity to work with developer relations and build a product that is worthy of them.

ADAM SHAPIRO: But we wish you continued success. It’s really– it’s remarkable what you’ve done. As they say in the land of the Shapiro Shapiros, more nachas for your team. Goodness and pride in what you deliver to all of us.